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The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2019-04-20 15:54:09 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)
French to English translations [PRO] Sports / Fitness / Recreation
French term or phrase:espoir
Does anyone know what the term "espoir" means in the context of a category or placement in a race or marathon?
e.g. 1ère espoir & 13ème femme au Semi-marathon de Genève 2017 1ère espoir Marathon de Florence 2018 1ère espoir & 3ème femme à la Young Chamonix Courmayeur
This is in a tourism article for website publication regarding local sports people in a mountain resort, this section relating to a young runner's results.
The European Athletics U23 Championships is a biennial athletics competition for European athletes under the age of 23, which is organized by the European Athletic Association. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Athletics_U23_Champio... Les Championnats d'Europe espoirs d'athlétisme (European Athletics U23 Championships) sont une compétition d'athlétisme organisée tous les deux ans par l'Association européenne d'athlétisme, réservée aux athlètes âgés de moins de 23 ans. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Championnats_d'Europe_espoirs_...
That's rather a shame, in a way. They're still alive and well in Spain. One of my favourites is "alevines", which literally means "fry", as in young fish; it makes me think of tadpoles!
Hi Charles, don't know if you were referring to football and where, but the football authorities in my neck of the woods (and I think it was national) stopped using those cute terms like "poussins" a few years back and now all the different age categories are "under" like in English: U7, U9, U11, etc. :-)
But when we get down to things like "cadets", "minimes", "benjamins" and "poussins" there generally aren't any words for them in English and you're forced to use "Under" if you have to translate them.
It is a bit confusing, I agree, and a further point to bear in mind is that normally a person qualifies as "under 16", for example, for the whole of the year in which they turn 16, so if your birthday is in January you can still compete for the rest of that year at Under-16 even though from January onwards you are actually already 16. At least that's how it's applied in the contexts I'm familiar with; I can't swear that it's true of French athletics.
If this person was an Espoir in 2017-2018 I think it means that they must have been born 1995 or 1996. But maybe somebody else should check my maths!
As for the fact that there are younger categories, that's standard across other sports. In this case (athletics) there's an Under-20 category, as I said; it's understood that if you are an Under-23 you are older than an Under-20, though I'm not sure you're actually disqualified from competing at Under-23 if you're only 19, say.
Oh dear, my maths! Thank you Charles Davis, that's a great answer. The only reason I wasn't going for an "under..." is because there are other specific categories beneath that age as well, going by the listings of the Fédération Française d'Athlétisme categories. However, it would be age 20-22 for the events she did in 2017/2018 if she had to have been born between '97 and '99. Off to fact check her date of birth now...
If you're going to close the question I won't post an answer, but since, as you've shown, "Espoirs" is simply an age category, and in 2019 it means people born 1997-1999 and therefore aged about 20-22, I would suggest that Under-23 or U23 might be what you want here. It's a recognised category:
I came back to close the question quickly hoping I hadn't wasted anybody's time yet. Further research has shown it is a small age group of people born between 1997-1999! So now I just need to find the corresponding category in English but there doesn't seem to be one. I think the best I can do is "18-20 age group". Thank you all for your help. Phil Goddard, seed was one word I was trying to dredge up. But doesn't seem it is that. (seedling maybe given the ages, tee hee)
Explanation: Although in your specific text and for that specific event, "espoir" applies to people born on a specific date, I think there is an official category which applies more widely.
We have the same in Portugal, "esperanças".
In the Hopefuls category, the awards went to Laurie-Anne Dupont-Renaud and Simon Lambert-Lemay.
... the granting of the European crowns in the Hopefuls' category (KF2) and in the Juniors'
Example sentence(s):
Matthew Mantle finished a very creditable fifth in the 'Hopefuls' category, ...
the granting of the European crowns in the Hopefuls' category (KF2)
Ana Vozone Local time: 17:51 Works in field Native speaker of: Portuguese
50 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +5
U23
Explanation: In track and field, this category is under 23s (i.e. from 20-22)
The European Athletics U23 Championships is a biennial athletics competition for European athletes under the age of 23, which is organized by the European Athletic Association. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Athletics_U23_Champio... Les Championnats d'Europe espoirs d'athlétisme (European Athletics U23 Championships) sont une compétition d'athlétisme organisée tous les deux ans par l'Association européenne d'athlétisme, réservée aux athlètes âgés de moins de 23 ans. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Championnats_d'Europe_espoirs_...
peer agreement (net): +1
